DeviantArt can now notify anyone whose art’s been used in NFTs without permission
You can upload 10 images for free
The importance of building NFT protection tools
In a call with TNW, DeviantArt said that as a company in charge of a 22-year-old artist community, it has a strong inclination towards protecting its users’ interests.
The company hosts 70 million artists, with over half a billion images on the platform. It also has tools for publishing, marketing, and monetizing this content.
It built the NFT protection last year to shelter artists from thefts. Liat Karpel Gurwicz, the company’s CMO, said that Web3 is a good idea for artists to build equity for work, but it has yet to deliver fully on its promises. So it’s important to protect them from dangers like thefts with cross-chain and cross-marketplace tech.
She noted that the firm’s tool works across eight blockchains including Ethereum, Polygon, Palm, and Flow. At the time of writing, the tech has scanned more than 345 million NFTs, and has sent more than 245,000 alerts to artists.
The company’s theft detection tech is also available through APIs in the alpha stage. It plans to release it in open beta so other platforms and marketplaces can incorporate it to detect the use of plagiarized art.
Solo Ceesay, COO and Co-Founder atCalaxy, a blockchain-based app for creators, said NFT marketplaces have to incorporate tools that can catch bad actors before they make money:
He added that while decentralization is the strongest proposition of blockchain technology, NFT marketplaces need some level of centralization to stop the trade of stolen assets.
Gurwicz said that many marketplaces don’t have Know Your Customer (KYC) practices in place to protect artists. While Web3 is agile, and designed to allow users to lazy mint NFTs — a process where an NFT is minted just at the time of purchase — it gives fraudsters a chance to siphon off some money with stolen art.
NFT plagiarism is unfortunately alreadyrampant. Earlier this year, NFT marketplace OpenSea said that80% of NFTs created for free on the platform are spam or fraud. That makes tools like DeviantArt Protect essential for this space to flourish.
Did you know Solo Ceesay is speaking at theTNW Conferencethis summer? Check out the full list of speakershere.
Story byIvan Mehta
Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.“Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.”
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